http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31818&articlexml=SC-Order-on-Jats-Could-Apply-to-Marathas-18032015003016
Mar 18 2015 : The Economic Times (Mumbai) SC Order on Jats Could Apply to Marathas as Well Krishna Kumar Mumbai: The reverberations of the Supreme Court order on Tuesday, scrapping the demand for reservation of Jats under the OBC category is being felt in distant Maharashtra. This is because the grounds on which the apex court has turned down the Jat reservation also applies to Maratha reservation as well. Successive state governments in Maharashtra -the erstwhile Congress-NCP and the curren BJP-Shiv Sena -have been vociferously pitch ing for reservation of the Maratha community. While striking down the Jat reservation issue the apex court held that `caste cannot be the sole criterion' for providing reservation, arguing that backwardness of a caste is determined by economic and social status. "The inclusion of po litically-organised castes like the Jats in the OBC list is not good for other backward classes," the Supreme Court ruled. Significantly, the apex court's decision on the Jats would provide little hope for the Marathas since both are based on similar platforms. "We have told the Bombay High Court that the Maratha community does not qualify for reser vation in Maharashtra under the OBC category as the community is a politically powerful one," said Ketan Tirodkar, a former journalist who had filed a PIL in the Bombay High Court chal lenging the Maharashtra government's decision to give reservation to the Maratha community in education and government jobs. The HC had stayed the decision on reservation to the Marathas, but the BJP-Shiv Sena govern ment still went ahead and cleared the ordinance into an Act. In his PIL filed last year, Tirodkar had shown how out of the 20 chief ministers since the state was formed, 17 have been from the Maratha com munity, and 75% of the sugar factories and edu cational institutions were being run by the Ma ratha community. Interestingly, the SC judgement on Tuesday al so struck down the Jat reservation saying, "pos sible wrong inclusion of a class in the past can not be a basis for further wrong inclusion". Congress-NCP government had passed an ordi nance to give reservation to the Maratha com munity before the 2014 assembly polls. Political analyst and former journalist Pratap Asbe said the state would now have its task cu out in granting reservation, especially after the SC order. Maratha leader Vinayak Mete, who had been spearheading the demand for reservation of the community, however, claimed that the SC order would not impact Maharashtra. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
